Alpha Protocol

[J1M]

It's best to ignore what Roguey says about Alpha Protocol difficulty. Or just invert it and go with that. Odd to see a topic someone is so wrong about be so important to them.

 

[Roguey]

It's best to ignore what Roguey says about Alpha Protocol difficulty. Or just invert it and go with that. Odd to see a topic someone is so wrong about be so important to them.

"Alpha Protocol's bosses and hacking minigame are incredibly easy" is a damned lie (with caveats: all bosses are easy with chainshot, minigames can be skipped with EMPs). Outright won't believe anyone who claims they managed to beat all the bosses with something other than pistols on their first try on hard without documented video proof with full context.

 

[Butter]

I got filtered by the hacking minigame when I first played AP, but it's doable if you just stick with it. Boss fights are not difficult, regardless of weapon. I think I had to reload once when fighting Jim Cummings.

 

[Darth Roxor]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

 

[J1M]

It's best to ignore what Roguey says about Alpha Protocol difficulty. Or just invert it and go with that. Odd to see a topic someone is so wrong about be so important to them.

"Alpha Protocol's bosses and hacking minigame are incredibly easy" is a damned lie (with caveats: all bosses are easy with chainshot, minigames can be skipped with EMPs). Outright won't believe anyone who claims they managed to beat all the bosses with something other than pistols on their first try on hard without documented video proof with full context.

I don't even know what chain shot is. I never allocated any points to guns.

 

[Roguey]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

The other two are no problem with a mouse but this one is far from easy.

 

[Nano]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

The controls for the hacking minigame are horrible with KB&M. I've heard the same goes for the lockpicking minigame with controllers, so it kinda evens out that way.

 

[fantadomat]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

Not really but ok,the hacking with the mouse was annoying but not hard,tho it could be hard if you didn't invest in the hacking skill,i believe it was called engineering or security.

 

[J1M]

Roguey, I'm somewhat interested in taking you up on your challenge once I finish Mass Effect. Can you fully detail the parameters? (game settings, which boss gave you trouble, etc.)

 

[rusty_shackleford]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

The other two are no problem with a mouse but this one is far from easy.

Can't remember what it is anymore, but there's a non-obvious trick to solving these easily.

 

[fantadomat]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

The other two are no problem with a mouse but this one is far from easy.

Can't remember what it is anymore, but there's a non-obvious trick to solving these easily.

What trick?! You just have to match the worlds lol,it was pretty easy,the only problem was the you had to use the mouse to move one,thus it was very finicky.

 

[Ravielsk]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

Spoiler

The other two are no problem with a mouse but this one is far from easy.

For me it was rather easy but then again I have had several years worth of practice with Hentai Highschool+.

 

[Tigranes]

It's best to ignore what Roguey says about Alpha Protocol difficulty. Or just invert it and go with that. Odd to see a topic someone is so wrong about be so important to them.

"Alpha Protocol's bosses and hacking minigame are incredibly easy" is a damned lie (with caveats: all bosses are easy with chainshot, minigames can be skipped with EMPs). Outright won't believe anyone who claims they managed to beat all the bosses with something other than pistols on their first try on hard without documented video proof with full context.

AP minigames were only ever 'difficult' if you suffered hard from the mouse smoothing bug, which produced notable input lag & inaccuracy - this would in particular make lockpicking hell, because you couldn't control anything with precision.

After that was fixed for most people (patch and/or .ini tweak), there is nothing particular about them. Hacking is just a very simple word puzzle. Lockpicking isn't substantially different from any other lockpick game out there. Sometimes you, an individual, find a simple brain teaser very difficult for some random reason. Another day, someone else finds the Oblivion lockpick impossible for some weird reason. Maybe moving two things at once with keyboard and mouse is difficult, for example (I wonder if it's easier for people who played instruments?). But the widespread gnashing of teeth about AP minigame difficulty really isn't rooted in reality.

 

[Roguey]

Roguey, I'm somewhat interested in taking you up on your challenge once I finish Mass Effect. Can you fully detail the parameters? (game settings, which boss gave you trouble, etc.)

Too late because it would require no prior knowledge or experience with it.

I went digging through Codex-Past to find numerous examples of people complaining about boss difficulty:

Just beat Brayko a few minutes ago. Turn Up the Radio happens to be one of the only 80s rock songs I like, so the fight ended up being pretty enjoyable even though it took me three tries.

Oh, and nice review.

First run-through: Max martial arts & stealth. Everything was easy peezy then I ran into Omen Deng. And then Brayko. I raged.

Second run-through: Max shotguns and assault rifles. Everything was easier peezier. Took down Brayko in what I thought was a pretty cool fight.

Third run-through: Max pistols. All bosses died in 1-2 hits. I was speechless.

Did anybody at Obsidian even bother to test Chain Shot?

Don't have enough time to post a general review yet, but there you go.

Yeah, boss fight difficulty really is dependent on how many abilities you have that enhance your damage output. On my second playthrough I just finished Rome and Taipei. The Marburg fight in Rome was the first "real" boss fight (the Arab lieutenant doesn't count because he's way easier than any of the mid game bosses). In my first game I had to cheat to stand even a little chance against Marburg, but this time, while it wasn't exactly easy, I could at least damage him with my assault rifle skills and eventually managed to get through. After that, it just got easier, Omen Deng in Taipei was over very quickly, and Sis stood up for about 3 seconds. The assault rifle build actually has a harder time with lots of mooks running around that with bosses, at least later in the game it seemed that way.

I'm fighting Brayko, and despite having a wonderful and joyous time without feeling any frustration whatsoever over the fact I can't even chip away half of his health before dying, I'm thinking I need something to help me beat this guy before I end up in a mental institution. I've tried reading some guides out there on how to beat him (where I learned such useful advice as "remember to run away from Brayko when he's chasing you" and "shooting his henchmen will make the fight easier"), but I simply can't beat this guy. I managed to do it once because he bugged out and stood still (but I accidentally executed him afterwards, which wasn't my intention), but otherwise I am not kidding when I say that I've been at this for two or three hours (with sporadic smoke breaks where I've been hammering my fists into the wall), without success of course.

I *have* learned the most efficient way to outrun him when he goes mental and starts chasing you (which is to repeatedly run up on stage and then jump down just before he catches you), but whenever the guards start storming in I rarely survive for more than five seconds. Playing on hard, btw, and using MSG's* and shotguns as my main weapons (I know, I know). I also have one incendiary grenade and three regular ones left.

I need halp codex, I really fucking do.

*= typo, meant SMG's.

Anyone else think the bosses in this game suck balls :evil: :

Despite the keyboard smashing frustration I endured during a retarded boss fight today, I still think it was worth the money. I might change my opinion if the next boss fight in the current area is as ballbreaking as others here have foretold.

Indeed the boss battles suck. The worst is Omen Deng imo, fuck him and his stealthy fists of steel.

GAH. The boss fight with the russian mafia guy has really made me think someone at Obsidian is a huge fucking idiot that should be fired. It might be the worst designed fight I ever played.

Is this supposed to be a stealth-based pseudo action game, or a bad platformer? Why is a guy high on cocaine wielding a knife scarier than a trained agent wielding two submachine guns? Why do these guns do fuck all for damage? Why does his armor RECHARGE? Why does he even have armour when he's wearing a purple tux? FUCK this fight, seriously. I liked the game up to this point, and I'll probably like the following part, but this encounter is a piece of shit.

Yeah Marburg was the guy I was fighting and it was the first place I went to. The fight was not remotely winnable as far as I could tell. My guy was specializing in hand-to-hand and stealth but if I got anywhere close to the boss he would just beat the shit out of me. I resorted to stealth and really awful pistol shots but it did essentially no damage and the incoming bodyguards usually ran me down if the boss didn't. I understand the concept of "coming back later" but the game's primary strength, if only strength really, was a strong and interesting narrative and if I had to break that apart just to advance I simply had no interest.

I'll probably pick it up again whenever it hits $5 or whatever.

As a side note, I also found an old post of mine giving another reason why one shouldn't bother playing AP on hard: a mission that forces you into a mandatory hand-to-hand fight at the start regardless of your character's amount of skill. Forgotten about it entirely, but now the loathing is back.

The only thing that sucks is I always get myself stuck in the mansion in Italy without any weapons with characters that can not stealth well or melee... so they are fucked. I guess I needed to make different choices so I would not get in that position.

You'll always be railroaded into a fist fight no matter what you do, that level is simply terrible. The solution is to play on normal so you don't have to deal with stat-bloated enemies. I guess it also helps to do that mission relatively early since everything in AP is level-scaled.

 

[Mark Richard]

the bosses can be annoying under certain circumstances, but anyone who finds the minigames in alpha protocol hard has to be brian damaged

The other two are no problem with a mouse but this one is far from easy.

Can't remember what it is anymore, but there's a non-obvious trick to solving these easily.

The trick is not to get fixated on letters/numbers, because those are trivial details that won't help find the codes any faster. Instead, separate the image into three wide columns to give your brain a structure to work with, and then skim each column from top to bottom for a lack of movement. As this process becomes more comfortable, both codes should be located within 10 seconds.

 

[TripJack]

the problem isn't finding the words the problem is that this shit company never once playtested their shit minigame using a mouse

 

[J1M]

Roguey, I'm somewhat interested in taking you up on your challenge once I finish Mass Effect. Can you fully detail the parameters? (game settings, which boss gave you trouble, etc.)

Too late because it would require no prior knowledge or experience with it.

I went digging through Codex-Past to find numerous examples of people complaining about boss difficulty:

Just beat Brayko a few minutes ago. Turn Up the Radio happens to be one of the only 80s rock songs I like, so the fight ended up being pretty enjoyable even though it took me three tries.

Oh, and nice review.

First run-through: Max martial arts & stealth. Everything was easy peezy then I ran into Omen Deng. And then Brayko. I raged.

Second run-through: Max shotguns and assault rifles. Everything was easier peezier. Took down Brayko in what I thought was a pretty cool fight.

Third run-through: Max pistols. All bosses died in 1-2 hits. I was speechless.

Did anybody at Obsidian even bother to test Chain Shot?

Don't have enough time to post a general review yet, but there you go.

Yeah, boss fight difficulty really is dependent on how many abilities you have that enhance your damage output. On my second playthrough I just finished Rome and Taipei. The Marburg fight in Rome was the first "real" boss fight (the Arab lieutenant doesn't count because he's way easier than any of the mid game bosses). In my first game I had to cheat to stand even a little chance against Marburg, but this time, while it wasn't exactly easy, I could at least damage him with my assault rifle skills and eventually managed to get through. After that, it just got easier, Omen Deng in Taipei was over very quickly, and Sis stood up for about 3 seconds. The assault rifle build actually has a harder time with lots of mooks running around that with bosses, at least later in the game it seemed that way.

I'm fighting Brayko, and despite having a wonderful and joyous time without feeling any frustration whatsoever over the fact I can't even chip away half of his health before dying, I'm thinking I need something to help me beat this guy before I end up in a mental institution. I've tried reading some guides out there on how to beat him (where I learned such useful advice as "remember to run away from Brayko when he's chasing you" and "shooting his henchmen will make the fight easier"), but I simply can't beat this guy. I managed to do it once because he bugged out and stood still (but I accidentally executed him afterwards, which wasn't my intention), but otherwise I am not kidding when I say that I've been at this for two or three hours (with sporadic smoke breaks where I've been hammering my fists into the wall), without success of course.

I *have* learned the most efficient way to outrun him when he goes mental and starts chasing you (which is to repeatedly run up on stage and then jump down just before he catches you), but whenever the guards start storming in I rarely survive for more than five seconds. Playing on hard, btw, and using MSG's* and shotguns as my main weapons (I know, I know). I also have one incendiary grenade and three regular ones left.

I need halp codex, I really fucking do.

*= typo, meant SMG's.

Anyone else think the bosses in this game suck balls :evil: :

Despite the keyboard smashing frustration I endured during a retarded boss fight today, I still think it was worth the money. I might change my opinion if the next boss fight in the current area is as ballbreaking as others here have foretold.

Indeed the boss battles suck. The worst is Omen Deng imo, fuck him and his stealthy fists of steel.

GAH. The boss fight with the russian mafia guy has really made me think someone at Obsidian is a huge fucking idiot that should be fired. It might be the worst designed fight I ever played.

Is this supposed to be a stealth-based pseudo action game, or a bad platformer? Why is a guy high on cocaine wielding a knife scarier than a trained agent wielding two submachine guns? Why do these guns do fuck all for damage? Why does his armor RECHARGE? Why does he even have armour when he's wearing a purple tux? FUCK this fight, seriously. I liked the game up to this point, and I'll probably like the following part, but this encounter is a piece of shit.

Yeah Marburg was the guy I was fighting and it was the first place I went to. The fight was not remotely winnable as far as I could tell. My guy was specializing in hand-to-hand and stealth but if I got anywhere close to the boss he would just beat the shit out of me. I resorted to stealth and really awful pistol shots but it did essentially no damage and the incoming bodyguards usually ran me down if the boss didn't. I understand the concept of "coming back later" but the game's primary strength, if only strength really, was a strong and interesting narrative and if I had to break that apart just to advance I simply had no interest.

I'll probably pick it up again whenever it hits $5 or whatever.

As a side note, I also found an old post of mine giving another reason why one shouldn't bother playing AP on hard: a mission that forces you into a mandatory hand-to-hand fight at the start regardless of your character's amount of skill. Forgotten about it entirely, but now the loathing is back.

The only thing that sucks is I always get myself stuck in the mansion in Italy without any weapons with characters that can not stealth well or melee... so they are fucked. I guess I needed to make different choices so I would not get in that position.

You'll always be railroaded into a fist fight no matter what you do, that level is simply terrible. The solution is to play on normal so you don't have to deal with stat-bloated enemies. I guess it also helps to do that mission relatively early since everything in AP is level-scaled.

Smells like backtracking to me.

What meta knowledge could I possibly retain from 11 years ago that would invalidate your point?

 

[Roguey]

Smells like backtracking to me.

What meta knowledge could I possibly retain from 11 years ago that would invalidate your point?

When I was a child, it took me countless retries and an entire day devoted to completing Super Mario Bros 3. Over a decade later I played it again with my brother; despite not having touched it since those days, I cleared it with no problem in a shorter period of time (closer to 6 hours than 12), whereas he ended up getting totally brickwalled several worlds in. Muscle memory remembers things you don't.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

The controls for the hacking minigame are horrible with KB&M. I've heard the same goes for the lockpicking minigame with controllers, so it kinda evens out that way.

I seem to remember during my first run, the locks in the room with Darcy's boss fight felt impossible and I was using KB&M. I can't imagine how hard it must be using a controller.

 

[Zombra]

"How do I ride this .. what do you call it? A bike?"

 

[Tigranes]

Roguey, you already posted this exact copypasta of selected quotations in the past, I remember that at least. Not that anyone is going to ever bother going through the Codex archives to see if this is representative, so you're just hoping to impress.

It's also misleading to do comparisons. Chain shot as everyone knows is a totally broken autowin button. ARs are basically easy mode, just like in almost every RPG with ARs (even Underrail!). The goalpost isn't that fists are the most OP build, but that fists are pretty easy (just like, well, the entire game).

H2H's true issue was that the mechanics were totally opaque, the very opposite of Gothic. The way to win was to just spam punch button a lot, and if you were unlucky, an enemy with juiced up skill (i.e. the bosses the above posts complain about) could interrupt/stunlock you and do the same. And despite having cleared the game multiple times on fists with ease, I'm... not convinced that there actually are coherent mechanics at all. There's really not much of dodging, blocking or timing. Another jank-ass consequence of Obsidian's "look ma, we can totally do action even though even our non-action games had jank-ass shit animations & optimisation" years).

 

[Roguey]

Roguey, you already posted this exact copypasta of selected quotations in the past, I remember that at least.

While I've grown forgetful over the years, I'm not that forgetful https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/alpha-protocol.57232/page-15#post-7011767 I posted a lot more this time.

Not that anyone is going to ever bother going through the Codex archives to see if this is representative, so you're just hoping to impress.

I ctrl +fed bosses and I didn't see a single person ever lodge a complaint that were too easy. Levels themselves sure, but not the bosses. However, I did get motivated to find this:

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/5...sy-and-linear/?do=findComment&comment=1037663

A lot of people complaining about how hard the boss fights are - it really depends. It's fairly challenging for me because I'm pretty bad with shooters, if you're someone that does a lot of multiplayer Call of Duty or Halo or such I'd imagine it's on theeasy side.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/5...y-suggestions/?do=findComment&comment=1042758

Depends on what you want to do, but if you feel boss fights are too hard/frustrating, definitely go for pistols. High level chain shots can be used to 'cheese' past bosses very easily.

I'd recommend Sabotage for anyone who plays on Hard - the minigame difficulty seems to increase as well, and if you're interested in picking every lock and such, you'll see quite a few of the hardest minigames (11/12-node alarms, 5 lockpicks in 10 seconds, 4/5-node hacking games with quick resets). I thought minigames were too easy in Normal, but I got caught out by a few of them, so invested in Sabotage and EMPs.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/55447-computer-hacking-too-fast/?do=findComment&comment=1043960

It is pretty damn hard on Hard, invest points into sabotage as you see fit - Spy's Luck, EMPs and decreased difficulty help.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/55410-hard-mode/?do=findComment&comment=1042918

Didn't bother with ME2 so no idea, but it is significantly harder than normal. If you are exposed to an alert enemy they can take you down in a couple of seconds, especially if it's, say, a well trained agent around the corner with a shotgun. Minigames also become harder, so even if you didn't have problems with them in Normal you should put a couple points in sabotage.



Obviously, chain shot makes it easier, but it's still significantly more challenging than Normal.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/5...ble-or-stupid/?do=findComment&comment=1041433

Just tried him on Veteran, Hard, with Heck's spiked cocaine. He is brutal on hard - the knife hits seem to take something like 30-40 health down, and possibly even more of your armor, and he can land anywehre between 2 and 4 hits if he gets you. You have to be fast in getting away and have first aid kits.

Who's the senile one now?

ARs are basically easy mode, just like in almost every RPG with ARs (even Underrail!).

They don't make the boss fights effortless, as you yourself used to admit.

 

[fantadomat]

All that talk made me download it.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Mission accomplished!

 

[Jaedar]

I went digging through Codex-Past to find numerous examples of people complaining about boss difficulty:

I don't appreciate you using my post about how the bosses suck as evidence of me thinking the bosses are hard.